Every week in the NFL season brings a host of new questions … and answers some old ones, too. Let’s run down what we learned in Week 10 … and what we’ll be wondering about in Week 11 and beyond.
ASKED: Is Kyler Murray figuring it out?
One of the true surprises at the midpoint of this season is the way the Arizona Cardinals are finding themselves, even as every other NFC West team is lost. At 6-4 heading into their bye week, the Cardinals are in charge of the division and in position to make just their second postseason in the past nine seasons. It all starts with Murray, who’s shedding all the criticism that’s built up on him over the first five-plus years of his career — too small, too erratic, too injury-prone, too focused on video games rather than the football field. Murray dissected the Jets on Sunday, 31-6, a feat that’s tougher than it might seem given the Jets’ own reputation these days.
What’s he doing differently? Murray is handling pressure phenomenally well, finding the open man — at one point Sunday, he completed 17 straight passes — and he’s making the right decisions, again and again. Murray completed 22 of 24 passes for 266 yards and a touchdown Sunday, and his unpredictability on the ground led to two more rushing touchdowns. Add that to the fact that Arizona now has serious weapons both in the backfield and in open space, and you’re looking at a Cardinals team that’s going to be a January headache for somebody — and this year, it’s not their own fans.
ANSWERED: Something special is happening in Pittsburgh
So, yeah, all those hot takes about how the Steelers needed to keep Russell Wilson on the bench and keep riding Justin Fields this season? You’re not hearing that so much these days, are you? Wilson has proven why Mike Tomlin had so much faith in him, and Tomlin has proven why he’s one of the elite minds in the game today. The Commanders might be a pound-for-pound more talented team than the Steelers, but Pittsburgh played chess to Washington’s checkers on Sunday and came away with the victory.
Wilson is technically only in Week 3 of his season, so there’s reason to wonder if he’ll remain this sharp into the postseason. It’s also fair to wonder just how far he can take Pittsburgh given that he’ll be facing much more explosive offenses at the top of the AFC. But here’s something interesting: Pittsburgh hasn’t yet faced a division foe. Six of its final eight games will come against AFC North opponents, so we’ll find out very quickly just how legitimate the Steelers are.
ASKED: Time to blow it all up in Chicago?
This might even qualify as an “Answered” rather than an “Asked” — we know changes are coming to Chicago, the only question is how deep that change will run. Detroit offensive coordinator Ben Johnson might as well go ahead and start sizing up Zillow listings in Chicago neighborhoods. After yet another embarrassing loss — this time, a 19-3 whomping at the hands of the Patriots — the Bears need to shine a bright light not just on the sideline, but on the front office, too. GM Ryan Poles won plenty of deserved acclaim for rooking the Panthers out of the No. 1 overall pick that became Caleb Williams … but then Poles hired head coach Matt Eberflus and his staff, too, traded away Roquan Smith (a two-time first-team All-Pro since), traded a second-rounder for Chase Claypool (who produced 18 receptions, 191 yards and one TD before being shipped away for a sixth-round pick) and most importantly didn’t do enough to beef up the Bears’ very real problems up and down the roster. (For instance: an offensive line that allows nine sacks Sunday.)
Also an issue: Williams has been struggling in a way you don’t want to see from a No. 1 overall pick. It’s likely Poles will throw Eberflus overboard and bring in a bright offensive mind to see what Williams can do … but if that doesn’t work, Bears fans’ rage is going to spread from the field to every corner of the organization.
ANSWERED: The Chargers are the best team you’re not watching
It’s one of the most perplexing elements of this NFL season that the coach who thoroughly captured the attention of the sports world last year while he was in Michigan is virtually anonymous this year in Los Angeles. Granted, there are reasons why Jim Harbaugh’s profile is so much lower these days — to start, he’s coaching the Chargers, the NFL’s equivalent of a witness protection program, and he’s also not facing any sign-stealing allegations. So he’s free to be the gloriously weird, brilliant coaching mind he’s always been, and the results are obvious. The Chargers won their sixth game of the year Sunday, one year after winning only five all season.
He’s created a tough, smart, inventive team — in other words, he’s reinvented the Chargers in his own image. Granted, the Chargers have fattened up on bad teams, but you play the schedule before you. Ahead are the Ravens, Falcons and Chiefs, and that will give a much better barometer of how good this team is this season. So far, though, the Chargers are so in step with the Harbaugh ethos that they might as well start wearing khakis on the field.
ASKED: What do the Giants do about Daniel Jones?
In most circumstances, this would be the time of year we’d forget all about the Giants for the rest of the season. But when you manage to snatch the title of “Worst Team in the NFL” from the reigning holder, well, that’s worthy of some notice. The Giants showed their whole rear to Germany on Sunday, losing to the Carolina Panthers in overtime. Two red-zone interceptions killed the Giants’ hopes, and Jones’ persistent inability to find open receivers reared up yet again on Sunday. Jones finished the day with just 190 yards and no touchdowns at all.
But maybe everyone’s being too hard on Jones. Maybe he just needs the right system around him. Look, for example, at what happens when he has time to create:
…yeah. It’s time to start thinking about a post-Jones era.
ANSWERED: You can’t trust the Falcons yet
If you’ve been a fan of the Atlanta Falcons for any length of time, you know their greatest enemy isn’t the Saints or the Bucs, it’s prosperity. This team simply cannot handle good fortune, and every time something good happens, something bad is certain to follow right afterward. (You already know the unimpeachable example of this.) Sunday’s loss to hated rival New Orleans and its interim coach was pure Falcons; anyone in Atlanta who didn’t bet a month’s rent on the Saints simply doesn’t know ball. Atlanta squandered a 116-yard, two-touchdown performance from Bijan Robinson and a 300-yard passing game from Kirk Cousins. A backbreaking interception and horrible end-game management — plus Younghoe Koo’s very un-Koo-like three field-goal misses — cost the team a game it absolutely should have won going away.
The Falcons still have the talent to win the division and even a playoff game or two, but the best way to get this team a Lombardi Trophy is to convince them the Super Bowl is actually in March.
